Repeat Performance - Softcover

Cohen, Sharleen Cooper

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1412004721 ISBN 13: 9781412004725

Publisher: Trafford Publishing, 2006

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Music was passion, sex was power, but love was the seductive melody.

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About the Author:

Sharleen Cooper Cohen began her business career by creating a highly successful interior design firm. After a decade as a designer, she turned to writing novels. Seven published novels later (The Day After Tomorrow, Regina's Song, The Ladies of Beverly Hills, Marital Affairs, Love Sex and Money, Lives of Value and Innocent Gestures), over two million copies of her books are in print in the U.S., Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, China and The United Kingdom. Three of them have been optioned for film and television. During her career as a novelist, she toured the United States numerous times, appearing at speaking engagements, book signings and on television and radio.

In 1995, her interest turned to the theatre and she wrote her first musical, Sheba, which she co-produced with the Jewish Repertory Theatre, Off-Broadway in New York. Sheba was one of the JRT's most successful productions and garnered an excellent New York Times review. The Sheba CD was released in January 2000 by Original Cast Records.

Since Sheba premiered, she was associate producer of Street Corner Symphony on Broadway and also produced Jerry Herman's The Best of Times at the Vaudeville Theatre in London's West End. In January of 1999, she produced Cookin' at the Cookery, the story of Alberta Hunter, in conjunction with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Her musical, Stormy Weather, the story of Lena Horne, had its first reading in New York in December 1998. Readings produced by Broadway On Sunset in Los Angeles in September 1999, featured a cast that included Barbara McNair, Tamara Tunie, Kelly Britt, Dennis Cole, and Ron Glass. Additional readings, directed by Billie Allen, were held in New York in October 2000. Produced by Amas Musical Theatre, the cast included Phylicia Rashad, Ruth Williamson, Tamara Tunie and Dennis Parlato. Stormy Weather was awarded Honorable Mention in the Stage Play Script Category of the 2000 Writer's Digest Writing Competition. Amas Musical Theatre also produced readings in New York in September and October 2001 with choreography by Hope Clarke. Billie Allen directed a cast that included Phylicia Rashad, Richard White, Ruth Williamson and Tamara Tunie. Luther Henderson was the orchestrator, arranger and musical supervisor.

Her original musical, Blackout, with music by award-winning composer Debra Barsha, had its first reading in April 2002, presented by The Amas 6 O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab. Directed by Allison Bergmann, the cast included Marcy McGuigan, Joseph Sirvano, Nina Hennessey and J.T. Horenstein.

A production of Sheba, a community outreach project bringing together the African-American and Jewish communities in an entertainment experience, is planned for 2004 in Los Angeles. This production, which has the support of both religious communities, may be the first of its kind and will serve as a blueprint for a national tour.

excerpt from Chapter 1

Once past the stage door and down the green room corridor he felt better. He could hear Regina's voice from back stage, and then as he opened the door to the theater he got a full blast of her. The golden tones flowed around him like a soft caress. The auburn mane of hair shot fire around her face. A full mouth on a pixie face, and those incredible breasts above the tiny waist. She held the audience spellbound as she sang.

Eddie stood on the side aisle until her opening ended, thinking about how it had been with Regina when she started out, a skinny kid from Montebello. She had no experience, just a gift for song and a stage presence that caught you and made you want to cry and laugh and fuck her all at the same time.

He'd never forget that night that night he'd taken her down to the Village where Cord Crocker and his younger brother Gene were appearing at some hole in the wall. They were forming a group with Don Drummond and they needed a fourth, someone who could sing. Regina had never sung in a group before, none of them had. We were all so young and eager, Eddie thought. And that's where the legend of Majesty had begun. The four of them were so right together from the very first moment. He shook his head, remembering. That legend would still be going on if Gene Crocker hadn't overdosed.

excerpt from Chapter 2

The phone rang, and a buzzer on the instrument next to Mike buzzed three times. "I'll take it in the office," he said and got up to answer the call.

Eddie watched him go with disappointment. there were as many interruptions here as there had been in Vegas. He'd better ask her now, even without Mike and Florie, before he lost her attention. He took a deep breath and began again. All she could say was no, he thought. "I'm trying to get a deal going to do a reunion concert of Majesty, Regina. It would be a one-time event, large scale, very big promotion." He watched her carefully. "Before you say anything, please hear me out."

Various reactions fought for supremacy on her face. But the one he hadn't expected won out. She looked at him with utter disbelief, and then tears came to her eyes as she covered her face with her hands.

Are you all right?" he asked nervously.

Tears were sliding down the outsides of her hands. She reached over the antique table and took a Kleenex. "I'm sorry Eddie. After Vegas I'm so wrung out that I shouldn't be expected to discuss anything. Nobody seems to understand that." The tears rolled down her cheeks and she tried unsuccessfully to smile. "I don't know why I'm crying." She was trying to compose herself. "My elder daughter, Jamie, has the flu. I was up with her all night. And my little one, Jana, sprained her finger yesterday. And Mike is pressing me to decide about our eastern tour which starts in three weeks. That means new songs, and new costumes, and constant work between now and then." She tottered on the brink of control while an image of Cord flashed in her mind. "And now you come here with an idea like this!" She started to laugh and cry at the same time, but the tears won out, and then she cried quietly, too exhausted to sob. "I'm so tired."

"Regina," he said softly. "How much do you make a year? Seven hundred and fifty thousand, a million? Where does it all go? What have you got left after you kill yourself like this? Have you made good investments with your capital? Do you know that a reunion concert with one night of performance and a couple of weeks preparation would net you over three million dollars?"

Again Cord flashed across the surface of her mind--never, never again!

excerpt from Chapter 3

"Hello Princess," he whispered. "What's this I hear about a reunion?"

Regina could hardly breathe; only this time it was passion and not panic that erupted inside of her. "Oh, Cord," she whispered. "Would that be too crazy? Do you still hate me so much?"

He looked at her sadly. "I couldn't help it then. But I think I can now. God," he shook his head in wonderment. "Look at you."

She smiled at him, "And you."

"But why would you want to do something like this? Take this chance? And why should I?"

"How could Don and I do it without you?"

"Have you both agreed?"

She nodded.

Cord waited for the old familiar pain to shoot through him again, even tried to dredge it up, but for some reason it didn't come. He felt almost naked with it, lighter, tons lighter. Was he finally free? Just like that? Or had Regina entered his bloodstream again, blotting out everything else, carving out her won place within the structure of his cells, fitting herself there as an antigen to his allergy, curing him with one massive dose of herself. He remembered Louise's conciliatory words. How ironic if they had paved the way for this. He opened his arms, pulling her toward him, holding her.

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